Antimony minerals

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Since the alchemists considered natural antimony minerals to be the most suitable raw material for the transmutation of metals into gold, alchemical literature abounds in references to antimony (65). The most famous of the early monographs on this element is the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, which first appeared in 1604, in German. Johann Tholde, operator of a saltworks in Frankenhausen, Thuringia, the editor of this work, claimed that it had been written by a fifteenth-century Benedictine monk, Basilius Valentinus (3, 6). Since no conclusive evidence of the existence of this monk has been unearthed, and since the literary style... 

Sfibnite is the most common antimony mineral known and is the chief ore of that metal. It is a primary orermneral and occurs with other antimony minerals and galena, sphalerite, and silver ores. It is found in Germany, Rumania, the Balkans, Italy, Borneo, Peru. Japan, China, Mexico and ill the United States in California and Nevada. 

It is not very difficult to recover stibnite from other minerals because the melting point of this antimony mineral is low (546 °C). Heating in the range of 550 to 600 °C results in selective melting of the stibnite, which can be collected as crude concentrate. Roasting in air produces Sb203 that can be reduced with coke. Another method is to reduce the Sb2S3... 

The following is a list of the most important antimony minerals, with their antimony content —... 

Senarmontite [Named after the French mineralogist, H.H. de Senarmont (1808-1862)] (ICSD 1944 and PDF 43-1071) Sb,03 M = 275.4988 88.39 wt.% Sb 11.61 wt.% 0 (Oxides and hydroxides) Cubic a= 1114pm (Z=16) P.G. 432 S.G. Fd3m Isotropic = 2.087 2 5200- 5300 Habit euhedral crystals, massive-granular, encrustations. Color white, colorless, or gray. Luster adamantine. Diaphaneity transparent to translucent. Streak white. Geavage (111) imperfect. Fracture uneven. Occurrence oxidation of stibnite and other antimony minerals. 

Basilius Valentinus is also said to have written Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. However, it has been questioned if this really is a work by a monk in the 1400s. It seems too modern for the 15 century and was in fact published by Johann Tholde in Germany in 1604. In the monograph it is emphasized that antimony minerals are the most suitable raw materials for the transmutation of metals into gold. 

Figure 46.2 Heating with a burning glass was utilized in early chemistry. This picture, from LeFevre, Cours de Chymie, shows caicination of an antimony mineral.

Although China have ineplaceable advantages in antimony production all over the world, but there are more problems of back facilities and severe environment pollution. Referencing the successfully experience of lead smelting, it is feasible to smelt antimony mineral in molten-bath smelting furnace, and the environment problem will be disposed by sulfuric acid production. 

Uranium, not as rare as once thought, is now considered to be more plentiful than mercury, antimony, silver, or cadmium, and is about as abundant as molybdenum or arsenic. It occurs in numerous minerals such as pitchblende, uraninite, carnotite, autunite, uranophane, and tobernite. It is also found in phosphate rock, lignite, monazite sands, and can be recovered commercially from these sources. 

Alaska, Washington, and Nevada. Ores of the Southeast Missouri lead belt and extensive deposits such as in Silesia and Morocco are of the replacement type. These deposits formed when an aqueous solution of the minerals, under the influence of changing temperature and pressure, deposited the sulfides in susceptible sedimentary rock, usually limestone and dolomites. These ore bodies usually contain galena, sphalerite, and pyrite minerals, but seldom contain gold, silver, copper, antimony, or bismuth. 

Some elements found in body tissues have no apparent physiological role, but have not been shown to be toxic. Examples are mbidium, strontium, titanium, niobium, germanium, and lanthanum. Other elements are toxic when found in greater than trace amounts, and sometimes in trace amounts. These latter elements include arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, silver, zirconium, beryUium, and thallium. Numerous other elements are used in medicine in nonnutrient roles. These include lithium, bismuth, antimony, bromine, platinum, and gold (Eig. 1). The interactions of mineral nutrients with... 

The irradiation of calciferol in the presence of iodine leads to the formation of 5,6-/n7 j -vitaniin D2 [14449-19-5] (31) or [22350 1-0] (32) (67,68). 5,6-/ra j -Vitainin D as well as vitamin D (2) or (4) can be converted to isovitamin D by treatment with mineral or Lewis acids. Isocalciferol (35) [469-05-6] or (36) [42607-12-5] also forms upon heating of 5,6-/ -vitamin D. Isotachysterol (33) [469-06-7] or (34) [22350-43-2] forms from isocalciferol or vitamin D upon treatment with acid, and its production appears to be the result of sequential formation of trans- and isocalciferol from calciferol. These reactions are the basis of the antimony trichloride test for vitamin D (69—72). 

Montana. These deposits consist of stibnite and other sulfide minerals containing base metals and silver or gold. Ores of the complex deposits are mined primarily for lead, copper, 2inc, or precious metals antimony is a by-product of the treatment of these ores. 

Microbiological leaching of copper and uranium has been commercially developed and research has iadicated that microorganisms may be used to oxidize complex antimony sulfide minerals (22,23). If this technology is developed commercially, it may aHow for the exploitation of many low grade antimony deposits. 

At higher temperatures the stable form is valentinite, which consists of infinite double chains. The orthorhombic modification is metastable below 570 °C however, it is sufficientiy stable to exist as a mineral. Antimony trioxide melts in the absence of oxygen at 656°C and partially sublimes before reaching the boiling temperature, 1425°C. The vapor at 1500°C consists largely of Sb O molecules, but these dissociate at higher temperatures to form Sb202 molecules. 

Cobalt is the thirtieth most abundant element on earth and comprises approximately 0.0025% of the earth s cmst (3). It occurs in mineral form as arsenides, sulfides, and oxides trace amounts are also found in other minerals of nickel and iron as substitute ions (4). Cobalt minerals are commonly associated with ores of nickel, iron, silver, bismuth, copper, manganese, antimony, and 2iac. Table 1 Hsts the principal cobalt minerals and some corresponding properties. A complete listing of cobalt minerals is given ia Reference 4. 

Lead The production of lead from lead sulphide minerals, principally galena, PbS, is considerably more complicated than the production of zinc because tire roasting of the sulphide to prepare the oxide for reduction produces PbO which is a relatively volatile oxide, and therefore the temperature of roasting is limited. The products of roasting also contain unoxidized galena as well as die oxide, some lead basic sulphate, and impurities such as zinc, iron, arsenic and antimony. 

None of the three elements is particularly abundant in the earth s crust though several minerals contain them as major constituents. As can be seen from Table 13.1, arsenic occurs about halfway down the elements in order of abundance, grouped with several others near 2 ppm. Antimony has only one-tenth of this abundance and Bi, down by a further factor of 20 or more, is about as unabundant as several of the commoner platinum metals and gold. In common with all the post-transition-element metals. As, Sb and Bi are chalcophiles, i.e. they occur in association with the chalcogens S, Se and Te rather than as oxides and silicates. 

Antimon-saure, /. antimonic acid, -saureanhy-drid, n. antimonic anhydride, antimony pent-oxide. -silber, n. antimonial silver, dyscrasite. -silberblende,/. pyrargyrite. -silberglanz, m. stephanite. -spiegel, m. antimony mirror, -sulfid, n. antimony sulfide, specif, antimony pentasulfide, antimony(V) sulfide, -sulfiir, n. antimony trisulfide, antimony(III) sulfide, -yerblndung,/. antimony compound, -wasser--stoff, m. antimony hydride, stibine. -weiss, n. antimony white (Sb Oa). -zinnober, m. kermes mineral. 

SpiessglanZ kermes, m. kermesite kermes mineral, -kbnig, m. regulus of antimony, -leber,/. livex of antimony, hepar antimonii. -metall, n. antimony, -mittel, n. antimonial remedy, -mohr, m. aethiops antimonialis (old pharmaceutical preparation of mercury and antimony sulfides). -ocker, m, antimony ocher, -oxyd,n. antimon> trioxide. -safran,... 

Another point is related to the high acidity level of the final solution, which leads to certain limitations in the subsequent technological steps. Specifically, the high acidity of the initial solution eliminates any possibility for selective extraction, i.e. sequential separation of tantalum and then of niobium. Due to the high concentration of acids, only collective extraction (of tantalum and niobium together) can be performed, at least at the first step. In addition, extraction from a highly acidic solution might cause additional contamination of the final products with antimony and other related impurities. In order to reduce the level of contaminants in the initial solution, some special additives are applied prior to the liquid-liquid extraction. For instance, some mineral acids and base metals are added to the solution at certain temperatures to cause the precipitation of antimony [455 - 457]. 

Glocker and Frohnmayer determined the characteristic constant c for nine elements (Reference 2, Table 4) ranging in atomic numbers from 42 (molybdenum) to 90 (thorium). They proved that identical results could be obtained with the sample in the primary (polychromatic) or in the diffracted (monochromatic) beam. The method was applied with good results to the determination of barium in glass of antimony in a silicate of hafnium in the mineral alvite and of molybdenum, antimony, barium, and lanthanum in a solution of their salts—for example, 5.45% barium was found on 90-minute exposure by the x-ray method for a glass that yielded 5.8% on being analyzed chemically. 

The magnetic criterion is particularly valuable because it provides a basis for differentiating sharply between essentially ionic and essentially electron-pair bonds Experimental data have as yet been obtained for only a few of the interesting compounds, but these indicate that oxides and fluorides of most metals are ionic. Electron-pair bonds are formed by most of the transition elements with sulfur, selenium, tellurium, phosphorus, arsenic and antimony, as in the sulfide minerals (pyrite, molybdenite, skutterudite, etc.). The halogens other than fluorine form electron-pair bonds with metals of the palladium and platinum groups and sometimes, but not always, with iron-group metals. 

Six elements are metalloids B, Si, Ge, As, Sb, and Te. Of these, silicon is by far the most abundant, making up over 27% of the Earth s crust, more than any other element except oxygen, hi fact, S1O2 and silicate minerals account for 80% of the atoms near the Earth s surface. Despite its great abundance, silicon was not discovered until 1824, probably because the strong bonds it forms with oxygen makes silicon difficult to isolate. Two much rarer metalloids, antimony (known to the ancients) and arsenic (discovered ca. 1250 ad) were isolated and identified long before silicon. 

V. H. Aprahamian and D. G. Demopoulos, The Solution Chemistry and Solvent Extraction Behaviour of copper, iron, nickel, zinc, lead, tin, Ag, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, selenium and tellurium in Acid Chloride Solutions Reviewed from the Standpoint of PGM Refining, Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, Vol. 14, p. 143,1995. 

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